I hope this is not another hollywood movie's compassion for Japanese

You actually think that spouting childish cliches are better than looking at the real world, don't you kiddo?
Yeah, sure - Japanese people are subhumans. They don't need to be looked at for who they were - we MUST cherry pick their behavior and ours, to make us seem like superhuman, and them seem like the dirty little subhuman rats the Germans saw the Jews as.
Because apparently , you're so insecure you need that.
Just ask Clint Eastwood. You know, that liberal politically correct monster who made Iwo Jima film. He portrayed the Japanese as HUMANS! Shock horror! Liberal Hollywood bias!
Of COURSE they're not human. We must present hem as that - ESPECIALLY the women and children on mainland Japan, right kiddo? Totally - killing children and non-combatants is always justified. As if torturing children. Because USA! USA! USA! Freeeedom! Values! Righteous slaughter!

Child.

Well, it's all water under the bridge. Everyone from that era is dead. So let's move on.

It's the most obvious American propaganda movie I've ever seen. It tries to apologise for and yet justify the decimation of two civilian cities as "just and right" revenge for the bombing of pearl harbour. As such, I sense from the movie that Tommy Lee Jones reluctantly gives to his role only "what he must" (or what he's been told).

It's a series of "love story" flashbacks and vacuous script driven performances that could only be contrived by a Washington political think tank.

I can only surmise that America must see Japan as a burgeoning market.

I hope all people who look back on the World War 2 conflict are shown a true history that clearly remembers the atrocities committed by both sides.

This political agenda driven Hollywood gloss isn't it.

You can puke all you want. Technically such denial falls under freedom of speech (and it's usually terribly argued anyway with zero evidence.) In Europe such denial is outlawed, but then again there is no free speech in Europe. You can denial Communist crimes in Europe all you want. The Communists killed a lot more people than the Nazis, but only denying Nazi crimes gets you into jail in the EUSSR. Go figure.

Funnily enough, the Asian countries suffered just the same under their white masters. Luckily, when Japan was defeated, all those Asian countries realized that they don't need or want their white masters anymore, so the Europeans and Americans had to give up their colonies. Good riddance.

There are no Hollywood movies that show the POV of the German soldier because that doesn't fit with Hollywood's propaganda and nobody would get it anyway. Powerful movies like Stalingrad or Das Boot which focus on the German soldier can't be made in Hollywood. Instead they give us crap like "Enemy at the gates" and over-glorification of American deeds.

Hollywood has this weird pseudo-trauma concerning the nukes. I mean there are Americans who want America to apologize for the nukes. That is insane.

Fact is the nuclear bombs had little to no military effect. The real slap across the face for Hirohito was the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, which nobody expected (fact is that Hirohito's embassy in Moscow was trying to get into talks with Stalin to make the US stop bombing the *beep* out of Japan, but Stalin had already promised to enter the war in Asia) and which pretty much pulverized large parts of the Kwantung Army and made most surviving units flee (and abandon innocent civilians in the hands of the Soviets, who behaved like elements of the Japanese army in Nanking, and who made no difference in who they raped to death: Chinese or Japanese woman.) Hirohito didn't realize that the war was over. It was a small group of government members and officers who finally managed to push him into recording the surrender speeches (yes there were more than one, the famous one mentioning the nukes was for the civilian population, the military received another one with no word of the nukes.) Those recordings then had to be smuggled out of the palace. There were plenty of elements in the military and "civilian" side of the government who wanted to keep fighting.

The death toll and destruction of the conventional bombing campaign was also far bigger than that of the nukes, pretty much rendering the effort and resources that were used to build the bomb an utter waste.

Were the nukes justifiable? It was war. End of discussion. Whoever got the bomb first would have used it.

As for your other points... Oivech. The sexual slavery is not as easy as you put it. Especially China and Korea have built up a myth that states that every Chinese and Korean working for the Japanese was forced into service. Every single one of them. That is a load of crap. There were plenty of volunteers. We know, for example, from surviving Allied POWs that the Korean guards were much worse than their Japanese counterparts. In comparison in Europe plenty of people in the Nazi occupied countries collaborated with the Nazis and even joined the Nazi military, including the SS. It would be exactly the same in Asia.

The difference between France and the Netherlands on one side and China and Korea on the other is that the French and Dutch resistance took care of the collaborators when the war was over (and even during it). China and Korea never did that. Instead they built this utterly laughable myth.

And then there's this "little" issue of sexual slavery in Japan under the allied occupation and how the US HQ approved of it. There are instances where women were forced into prostitution to serve American "customers". This was approved by the US HQ. Not to mention the decades long cover up by the US government of thousands of literally thousands of rapes committed by American soldiers, sailors and marines. The Aussies, who were also there, have acknowledged it. We have the files, we have the hard evidence, we have the confirmation by Australian military police. But then again, Aussies are generally more reasonable people than Americans.

US Congress Critters cry tears over Chinese and Korean women who were raped by Japanese soldiers, but they don't care about the Japanese women who were raped by US soldiers in insanely high numbers as well. They willingly ignore the hard evidence for the sake of pretending to be on the moral high ground.

That is one unforgivable thing regarding US behavior even today.

The other is that Hirohito and prince Asaka walked. Hirohito signed the order to murder Chinese POWs. The war was waged in his name. Afterwards he pretended to never have been informed, but that is a load of BS. He knew and he did nothing. When Hirohito saw the destruction of the first air raid on Tokyo he did nothing. His biggest concern was a possible Communist coup (impossible by then, because the different special police units had already destroyed all dissident cells in his name and under his orders) and the security of the crown's treasures. He cared nothing for his people. Asaka gave the order that led to the Rape of Nanking. They hanged the wrong man for Nanking. General Matsui was innocent, Asaka was responsible. But Asaka was part of the imperial family and thus the US let him go!

Since you mention the experiments, what do you think happened to the men in charge of Unit 731? NOTHING!

The US and the Soviets quickly jumped on these guys and let them go in exchange for the research data. Similar happened in Europe where Western Allies and Soviets chose to not go after Luftwaffe doctors who had experimented on POWs. Again they were let go in exchange for their research data.

Long story short? Don't pretend to be on the moral high ground, cause you Yanks aren't there at all. You let plenty of really bad guys get away.

As for the oh so awful revision of history those nasty right wing Japanese do... First of, nobody in Japan listens to them. They're a running gag, at best and an annoyance, at worst. Plus... the revision of history that's happening in the US is on the same level. But that doesn't get you up in arms. Go figure. Self-righteous and complacent American'ts and AmeriKKKans. Clean your own yard first.

As for this movie... It's *beep* Rather see the Japanese production from 2012 featuring Watanabe Ken and David Morse (MacArthur) as opposing players in the post-war effort. That was a great production with magnificent acting. David Morse doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

Almost everyone in this thread justifying the use of nuclear weapons against the Japanese is forgetting that the Russians had just declared war on Japan. The Japanese government were terrified of this and it's my honest opinion that it was in America's interests to end the pacific war before the Russians had a chance to invade & both were forced to carve up the mainland much like had happened in Europe. This "saving millions of lives" justification is a load of propoganda and frankly, baloney. The use of the two nukes was a political move, pure & simple.

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Duty Now For The Future

Well this kicked off a firestorm didn't it? To respond to the original poster's comment about films shown from the Nazi's point of view (I assume you mean German, because there is a difference) there are actually quite a lot including Stalingrad, Into the White, Valkyrie, etc. Europa Europa spends some time with German soldiers though the main character is a secret Jew. If you did mean specifically Nazis then there is Der Untergang (about Hitler and his cronies), The Bunker (Also about Hitler's last days), Hitler: The Last Ten Days (Ditto), Conspiracy (The implementation of the Final Solution), The Boy in Striped Pajamas (The father is an unrepentant Nazi at Auschwitz), Before the Fall (Life as a Hitler Youth), etc. And who can deny that the best character in Inglorious Basterds was the evil Nazi? Of course, there are a few 'good Nazi' films including Schindler's List and John Rabe as well. In other words, no: there are plenty of WW2 films told from the German point of view.

Japan in WW2 is a lot more complicated. Japan has never really come to grips with its Imperial past and it kind of shows. When war atrocities do get mentioned it usually seems to head in the direction of bilateral guilt, as in your side committed crimes too therefore why focus on us? Better for everyone if we just stopped talking about it. I can't stand this attitude, but I understand why it exists. It's all tied in with Japan's shame culture, where you don't speak out publicly concerning events that are vile. And it can lead to exactly the sort of nasty denial of atrocities you find in some of these later posts. But this doesn't mean that it represents the general opinion of Japanese people. It also doesn't mean that some people haven't given their view of Japan's war. There are a number of films about wartime Japan.

I thought Letters from Iwo Jima was quite good. It did take a sympathetic view of individual Japanese soldiers, but at the same time it showed the brutal madness that was Japanese Imperial ideology. The only times it crossed the line into campy melodrama was when Baron Nishi starts chatting with an American prisoner. Gosh, it's almost like saying the whole war was a huge mistake and we should just all get along! The majority of Japanese war films do revolve around the suffering of the innocent victims of war, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in particular. And they're certainly entitled to them. It's hard explaining to some small child slowly dying of radiation poisoning that he had it coming because of something other people from his country did to other innocents over the sea. A lot of the other Japanese war films focus on the navy, which had a rather less tarnished reputation on war crimes than the army. So you can get films like Yamato and Storm Over the Pacific which treat the war in a rather sympathetic way. Rather more disturbing is the rise of films glorifying kamikaze pilots. They tend to treat them as heroes dying in defense of their homeland. I'd be much happier to watch one that takes the approach of Paradise Now (a film about suicide bombers in Israel) and explores the manipulation and ideology that causes people to become suicide bombers. Now that's a great film that Japan could never make.

There is an examination of the mentality of the leaders of Japan during the war called Japan's Longest Day. It's kind of like Der Untergang except for Japan. Though it does take a humanizing approach, the dangerous fanaticism of these men comes through loud and clear. I mean, you have lost your ability to protect your country from air attacks and the enemy has shown a willingness to bomb your cities to the ground one by one. How long does it take you to conclude surrender is the only option? Apparently two cities and a potential Russian invasion. Another look at the end of the war comes with The Sun, which is a Russian film about Emperor Hirohito. There is one unabashedly negative Japanese film about the war and it's called Fire on the Plain. It's about as dark as can be with Japanese soldiers resorting to cannibalism. There are a number of films about Nanking of course from the Chinese view, including John Rabe, City of Life and Death, and Flowers of War. These tend to treat the Japanese as stock evil villains, which in my view is just as unhelpful as treating them like martyrs. They were human beings, for better or worse, with a whole variety of personalities and motivations.

The common theme in most of these films is that the war was hellish, and you were lucky if you survived. Which is quite a healthy attitude to have about war, probably rather healthier than that seen in a lot of big budget blockbusters, as fun as they may be. It's also a theme that recurs a lot in Anime. When I see moments in Anime that could serve as analogies to Imperial Japanese ideology they are almost always negative, like the human experimentation in Fullmetal Alchemist. Yes, it's based on early 1900s European culture, but Japanese audiences could easily see their own past written in there. And the military in charge exploits patriotism and noble intentions to further its own ends. The only Japanese war films I find tasteless and disturbing are the kamikaze ones, since they seem to emphasize the glory of dying for one's country over the horror of a country forcing its young men to commit suicide for no cause. I mean, taking the enemy with you has a long history of acceptance in western culture as well. Even Star Wars has a scene where a crippled pilot rams the enemy bridge. The only thing that distinguished the kamikaze from that positive heroic trope was that they were corrupted into doing so on design by their trusted superiors, who cold-bloodedly ordered their deaths long after there was any hope of victory. And that's exactly what these films don't deal with.

If you think that American films are unabashedly pro-Japanese you're quite wrong. There are plenty of films with American soldiers going up against evil Japanese including Sands of Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, The Pacific, and pretty much any WW2 Pacific War film. It's just that America's attention is very much focused on Europe for historical, political, and cultural reasons. Also, it's just plain easier to find actors to play Nazis. You just take a random American or Brit, put him in a uniform and have him adopt a cheesy accent.

I can see why you'd be annoyed that the Japanese can make films treating their men as heroes fighting to defend their fatherland while the Germans cannot, but I think it's more a question of German reluctance than Japanese denial. Japan's big shock of the war was about the costs of modern war whereas Germany's was about who they were as a people. They had already learned the lesson of the costs that war could bring, they just forgot it again. Which is why I don't think I would have a problem with a German war film where the German soldiers were fighting to defend their homeland. It's the Germans who would be uncomfortable with it, as seen by their first really gung-ho war film in years where they had to turn the Red Baron into a bit of a pacifist to make him palatable to audiences. The closest they've come is in Dresden, where the German civilian population has to survive a brutal Allied bombing. Even there they had to insert a British character. It's too bad in a way, because I really liked the character of the Hitler youth kid in Der Untergang and think a movie about the defense of Berlin would be intriguing. Even if your country is in the hands of evil men it can still be noble to fight to defend your family and home. You aren't exactly left with a great number of desirable options. It would certainly be an interesting topic to explore. I guess that all I'm trying to say is that Imperial Japan was quite definitely evil, but every soldier fighting for it was not. I feel quite sorry for people brainwashed by a corrupt government since childhood into sacrificing theirs and others' lives for an ignoble purpose. All in the name of defending the homeland.

FABRICATE DIEM, PVNC

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Really So you enforced an embargo that forced Japan to have no option, they knew if they didn't attack they would fail to survive... you (America) wanted war with Japan, it wasn't fully on your terms as you got caught with your pants down at Pearl Harbour, but still you got it.

Then when you won (Just Like Iraq) your ignorance shows with your lack of patience. Then the desire for revenge (Pearl Harbour) it was not cause you saved the world, it was cause you got humiliated.

This story IMHO doesn't show America as the wonderful liberator but the typical bully it really is.

Now where was I, oh yeah I wonder how good a job you have done to Iraq, Afghanistan and pretty much every country you have invaded.

You came, you killed and you left it in ruins.

It is like you bring a black death everywhere you go.

And this is just another propaganda movie that you might think makes America look good, but in reality all i see was arrogance and ignorance and lack of respect for other peoples cultures.

OH BTW I used Harbour and not Harbor, cause that is how i was taught it is spelt.